Dust and sand create eerie, 'apocalyptic' scenes at Russian ski resorts

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Sahara sands stain Sochi ski mountains orange?

Strange phenomenon makes mountains across Eastern Europe and Russia appear orange. Many people took to social media comparing the eerie images to Mars.

A bizarre orange and yellow snow phenomenon has been reported at ski resorts in Russia and a few other countries, with tourists posting photos of slopes that look like a science fiction film.

Witnesses have reported that ski slopes have turned into sand dunes as the weird-colored snow has been spotted by tourists in Ukraine, Bulgaria and Romania as well as Russia.

The snow, which looks almost Martian in its hue, can be blamed on a mix of sand and pollen, according to scientists.

Pictures and video shared online show ski slopes tinted a strange orange color. Some pictures depict Sochi’s Rosa Khutor ski resort, which hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics. .

One user said: “Martian landscape, Apocalypse Now.”

Another wrote: “Snowy slopes were transformed into barkhan dunes.”

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Experts from the Sochi Centre of Hydrometeorology and Monitoring of the Black and Azov Seas were went to takes tests at the resort yesterday, reports the U.K. Sunday Express.

A spokesman for the agency said the cause of the phenomenon was likely winds carrying sand from the Sahara, which then fell as rain.

However, they also said that things should be back to normal in a few days.

The incident reminded some of the mysterious Siberian snow of 2007, in which a 580-square-mile region was blanketed with snow—in shades of orange, yellow or red—that was first blamed on industrial pollution but was more likely from a sandstorm in neighboring Kazakhstan.